Magic School Bus opinons please

We do use them, generally as a stepping stone for a reluctant reader to transition to chapter books.  We’ve also read a few together.  Yes, if it involves space/dinosaurs/etc the references are millions of years. 

One of our favorites, as an example, is The Search for the Missing Bones.  The kids are having a costume/Halloween type party and are going to dress up as skeletons.  When they get the costumes from Mrs. Frizzle each one is missing some of the bones.  They go on an adventure to learn the bones of the body and find their missing costume pieces.  It is a fun way to introduce the skeleton and help kids learn the bones of the body in a memorable way.  One year we read it and used highlighters to label our bones as we learned what they were in the book. 

I find they are a great way to kick off a deeper interest in nonfiction/science sometimes. 

Twaddly?  Yep.  Not the highest quality literature you could find, but for the age group it’s worked well for me. 

We like the dvd’s.  I’m choosy about which ones we watch (because of the millions of years thing).  But for entertainment with some educational value, I think they’re great for sick-days.

I try to stay away from reading the books aloud – I hate having to read the story, then back track to hit all the little text boxes.  If the girls want to read them on their own time, that’s fine, but there again, I’m choosy and we have just a couple.

We own all of them except the Dino one due to the millions of yrs and how they were destoyed. We love them! The boys have read them and re-read them a good many times! They have learned so much from them! And the dvd’s, and now available on Netflix, are great learning tools! Although my 11 yr old does not read them anymore, they were some of his favorite books!

I thought that the sarcasm would influence the boys, but it has not. And they know that it is not right to speak to each other like that. Some children may be influenced. I know someone whose child picks up on all kinds of stuff and acts it out! You have to be the judge on that one!

The only other book in the series that mentions Millions of yrs is the MSB Inside the Earth. This is a great book except for that! We have taught our boys how we believe since they were small, so they are prepared when we/they come across info that promotes millions of yrs! Hey, even science museums speak of these things! We went over the summer to a wonderful museum and it was mentioned all over the place! Oh and I forgot it was even at the Aquarium we visited too! I say this so you can help prepare your children ahead of time to know that they will enounter these things in many different ways, not just in books!

That was my 2 cents 🙂 And yes they are twaddley, but fun and full of info!

my children enjoyed the dvds when they were younger (back then I don’t think I knew they were originally books!)  we have always talked through the millions of years propoganda and they know to just ignore when comments start with “millions of years ago…”  the sarcasm is not an issue here either, they know better and don’t pick up things like that…unfortunately they seem to pick up on all my bad habits instead!